Operation Sea Lion - in Fiction

In Fiction

There is a large corpus of works set in an alternate history where the German invasion of Britain is attempted or successfully carried out (see also Axis victory in World War II). These include:

• Novels and short stories
  • Against the Day, Through the Night and In the Morning by Michael Cronin
  • Collaborator by Murray Davies
  • SS-GB by Len Deighton
  • Invasion: Alternative History of the German Invasion of England, July 1940, by Kenneth Macksey
  • Weaver: Time's Tapestry, by Stephen Baxter
  • Peace In Our Time (1946 - first performance 1947) by Noël Coward
  • C. S. Forester's volume of short stories Gold from Crete (1971) includes If Hitler had invaded England. This follows the progress of a German invasion fleet from its embarkation in France to its destruction in the fields of Kent, and closely follows the sequence of events reported in the Sandhurst wargame three years later.
  • Resistance by Owen Sheers, which sets the successful invasion in 1944 after a failed invasion of Normandy rather than in 1940
  • The Thursday Next novels by Jasper Fforde are set in an alternate universe in which Operation Sea Lion was successful. The German occupying force is eventually driven out, and by the time of The Eyre Affair England is a republic.
• Film and television
  • Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
  • It Happened Here (1966)
  • An Englishman's Castle
  • When Hitler Invaded Britain (2004)
  • Hitler's Britain (2002)
  • Alberto Cavalcanti's 1942 film Went the Day Well? is centred on a German radar-jamming mission for Sea Lion being eventually repulsed by the efforts of the civilian population of a remote village.
  • In the 1971 film Dad's Army, German aircrew with photographs vital to the invasion crash land in England.
  • Jackboots on Whitehall (2010)
  • In a 2011 episode of Misfits, an alternate reality where Germany won the Second World War, depicts Britain and the gang under the rule of the Nazi occupation force.
• In the manga Hellsing the remnant of SS known as Millenium dub their attack of London Operation Sea Lion II.

• Video and board games
  • Axis & Allies: while playing as the Axis powers in campaign mode (which has the Axis powers winning the war), Operation Sea Lion is the mission following the failed invasion of Normandy.
  • Britain Stands Alone: Operation Sealion, 1940, GMT Games (1994), boardgame
  • Empire Earth: the last mission of the German campaign is to carry out Operation Sea Lion
  • Panzer General, SSI (1994), video game; strategic simulation game: Sea Lion '40 and Sea Lion Plus (the latter with prestige points used to take over Gibraltar allowing Italian naval assistance) scenarios are available given major victories in early operations, or the Sea Lion '43 after initial delays and later major victories in North Africa or Russia.
  • Seelöwe, Simulations Publications, Inc. (1974), boardgame: featuring July/September scenarios (army and navy plans).
  • Silent Storm
  • Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain and Operation Sea Lion, GDW (1982), boardgame: part of GDW's Europa system.
  • Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
  • War Front: Turning Point
  • Britain Invaded!, aka Operation Sealion, Tk Computerware (1985)
  • Blitzkrieg, 2012, Boardgame, Diffraction Entertainment Ltd, part of the TSWW game system includes Sea Lion scenarios.